Thoughts on social, political, educational and business issues; Descriptions of my businesses and hobbies; My tentative plans for retirement; Notes on getting together and keeping in touch with my high school and college classmates and our reunions; Also Notes on my Family Research. I think I'll toss in a little humor on occasion, too. I welcome ideas for future discussions.

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22 November 2013

10 Tips to Avoid Speeding Tickets

By Phil Berg | Popular Mechanics

"The motorist is a
source of revenue," says Richard Diamond. And it's become
his life's obsession to change that.

By day, Diamond is the managing editor at The
Washington Times. But by night, he is a relentless advocate for drivers. It
started when he was 16 and got a speeding ticket from a California cop hiding
in a speed trap. What Diamond considered an
unfair tax and nasty constraint on his newfound mobile freedom has grated on
him for 26 years. So Diamond launched into years of research on police
ticketing strategies, some of it while employed on Capitol Hill, and all
disclosed daily on his self-funded website TheNewspaper.com since 2004.

"Ticketing efforts have not gone down one
bit," he says. Instead, there is a bewildering new variety of methods such
as automated ticket machines with cameras and license-plate readers, doling out
tickets for blocking bus lanes during gridlock or idling too long. "Any
violation you can dream up, they're working on a device to ticket you. You can
get laws passed for anything."

But speeding still makes up about 54 percent of tickets, Diamond says.
Factoring the data from 40 states that report speeding revenue, "I
estimate that it's $2 billion annually" in the U.S.

2. Be ready for anything. There are speed traps from moving and stationary
radar, lidar, known-location speed cameras, as well as hidden cameras, VASCAR
stopwatch calculators, and just plain visual observation. In Vermont, for
example, a police officer can simply make a guess of a vehicle's speed and it
will stand in court, though that has been outlawed in most places.

3. "Keep a low profile—don't call attention to yourself. A minivan in the
slow lane is less likely to get a ticket than a red Ferrari."

4. Keep quiet. Diamond says to present your license and registration and
insurance card, and that's it. "You don't have to answer [anything]
else—you have to say you're asserting your right to stay silent, or 'Please
speak to my lawyer.' Do it in a polite way, nice and respectful. Antagonists
get the most tickets. There are no warnings for a**holes."

5. Fight every ticket. In court, attacks on the legality of a speed-limit sign
have been known to work. Attacks on the chain of evidence have worked too. In
the Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts case of 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that
the sixth amendment right to face one's accuser applies to lab tests. In
California, courts have interpreted this to mean that photo tickets are not
valid unless the technician who analyzed the photo testifies in court.

6. Now we're getting into serious ticket-fighting territory. "Check
for the technical calibration of radar," Diamond says. "Usually radar
evidence is admissible, presuming calibration. But in some states, any laser
ticket is thrown out automatically because there is no calibration
possible."

To do this, check the manufacturer specifications for the device via a FOIA
(Freedom of Information Act ) request to the police department that issued the
ticket. Ask for a description of how the police department abided by the
calibration specs, which usually involves checking a radar gun's frequency with
a tuning fork provided by the radar gun manufacturer and sending the unit to
the manufacturer to be recalibrated. "It's worth investing the time to get
your ticket overturned. I've done it myself in Virginia. First thing to do is pull
up the vehicle code."

7. Check the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which you can
find here, Diamond says. If the speed-limit signs aren't up to code, you can
beat the ticket on a technicality. "Even the font of the sign is specified,"
he says. And "many places hide [speed] cameras behind signs and bushes.
There's even one behind the welcome to d.c. sign."

8. "The judge is not there to find you not guilty. The judge is part of
the revenue-collection machine. Give him a reason to find you not guilty,"
Diamond says.

The best way to do this is to record the conversation you have with the
ticketing officer. If there is a contradiction between the recording and the
officer's written report, Diamond says, "his credibility is shot."
Just be sure to check your state laws before you do this. For example, Maryland
does not allow you to record with a cellphone, Diamond says. There have been
arrests in Massachusetts and Illinois as well for recording conversations with
police, although the trend is for courts to dismiss these instances.

Get all the data you can. "Ask the officer where he was when he first
stopped you, and how long he paced you." Then, Diamond says, photograph
the speed-limit sign where you were stopped, the location where you first saw
the officer, and the location where the officer says he first saw you.
"Pacing is one of the top methods used for tickets, but in Pennsylvania
the officer needs to have followed you for 0.3 mile to use pacing," he
says. "Often they don't pace that far. They get sloppy a lot because they
can."

9. Find a friend in the local police department. "This is the
advanced course—knowing the patterns of where police are and when,"
Diamond says. "For example, the day after New Year's, that morning they're
all sleeping. Look for shift patterns."

About Me

Graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 1973. Prior to that, I attended North Miami High School and graduated in 1969.

I am a past Conservation Chairman for Broward County Audubon Society and a present member in good standing of American Mensa.

I have worked for Rockwell Int'l in Richardson, TX, and for the Air Force in GA and presently own a small air cleaner company, Pure Air Systems, Inc., in South Florida. As a sideline, I repair old/antique furniture, primarily reweaving rush, cane, wicker and Danish cord seats.

In recent years, I have taken up working with leather, making various items for fun. It was suggested to me that I should offer these things for sale, so I set up an Etsy.com account in order to do just that. Should the viewer be interested, my "shop" is entitled ArnoldsLeatherGoods; one word.

I have spent a great deal of time in tracking down old classmates/schoolmates from kindergarten days to college and have reunited a fair number of old friends with each other. I have instigated our FIT reunions for those of us who graduated with BSEEs in '73. Our first reunion was a rousing success. I decided to invite EEs of all degrees from the two years prior to '73 and two years after '73 to join us in 2013. I was unable to locate many of the schoolmates from those other four years and the 2013 reunion was rather sparsely attended. The next one will be in 2018 in Melbourne during the school's Homecoming week . I have four more years to track these fellows down and I hope our next attempt will be more successful.

I am also on my high school reunion committee, trying to track down missing alumni and determine which ones may have died; when, where and how, if possible.

I have had some chronic pain problems in the last several years, but still keep my hand in on conservation and especially animal (wildlife and domestic) welfare issues.